Shadow-Shadow Fruit
The Shadow-Shadow Fruit (カゲカゲ実, Kage Kage Mi) is a Paramythia-type Cursed Fruit that gives the user the ability to manifest and control shadows, as a tangible physical form, making the user a Shadow Human (影人間, Kage Ningen), or as Moria would describe himself, a Ruler of Shadows (影の支配者, Kage no Shihaisha). "Kage" (影) means "Shadow". It was eaten by the former |Warlord member, Moria Gecko. Its powers were first noticed on Brook when he first dined with the Straw Hats and the others at the Fairy Tail Guild. Appearance Gallery Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths The first and foremost strength of the fruit, as demonstrated by Moria, is that its user is able to manifest shadows into a physical form. The shadow follows the soul of its owner's movements, and cannot be changed from birth to death; this Cursed Fruit allows the user to change that absolute rule. With this power, the user is able to grab hold of their victim's shadow. They are then able to cut it with a pair of scissors as if it were a cloth. With the shadow, they are then able to place it into a lifeless corpse in order to create a zombie minion. The size of the shadow itself doesn't have to be in proportion with the corpse's own in order to revive it, as seen when Moria reanimated Oz's colossal corpse using Luffy's shadow. The minion that is created retains the mannerisms and abilities of the victim. The minion, however, is only as strong as the body it is composed of. The minion by itself also doesn't inherit any Cursed Fruit powers of the original owner of the shadow. Though the minion doesn't inherit any Cursed Fruit powers, the Shadow-Shadow Fruit user can manipulate the minion's shadow so that its body can simulate the body changing abilities, such as those of some Paramythia Cursed Fruit users. As seen during the Battle of Navyford, the Shadow-Shadow Fruit is especially useful in war-like conditions; the bodies of the fallen soldiers in the battlefield making for easy zombification. As for the original owner of the shadow, they will enter a two day coma once their shadow is separated from them. The Cursed Fruit user can use this effect to their advantage in battle as the original owner is completely defenseless until they wake up from their coma or are woken up. The original owner of the shadow is then forced to remain in darkness as they will vaporize if hit by sunlight. Being unable to exist in light, the original owner is also unable to cast any sort of reflection and is also unable to be photographed. It is worth noting that while exposing one's self into daylight after having their shadows extracted would mean instant death, it appears that recipients who had their shadows extracted for some time can actually last a little more under the sun than those who had their shadows taken very recently, as was seen during the final battle against Moria, where the shadowless Straw Hat and Team Natsu members instantly had their upper bodies obliterated, while the Rolling Pirates actually lasted a little longer. The Cursed Fruit user also has full control on whether or not the shadows return to their original owners. Simply beating the user, or even killing them, will not return the shadows the user has stolen. The user must willfully say that a shadow should return to its master in order for it to be fully returned. Of course, this contradicted by the claim that shadows can be returned to the owners by purifying or destroying the zombies. The user is also able manifest their own shadow as a semi-liquid physical form. They are then able to control their shadow and make it fight for them in their stead. Their shadow, as a physical manifestation, is a being of strengths similar to that of a Logia Cursed Fruit user as their shadow, in that state, is impervious to damage. It is also able to change shape and size depending on the user's wishes. The user is also able to switch places with their shadow in order to get to different places. The moment when the user switches places with their shadow can also be used to dodge attacks in a similar fashion to when a Logia type Cursed Fruit user transforms into their element in order to dodge an attack. The most powerful strength of the fruit is that the user can use the shadows they implanted into their zombie minions into themselves to power themselves up. This power up can be devastating depending on the number of shadows they implanted, and can ultimately cause the user to swell dramatically in size. Due to the shadows having many versatile usages, and properties that are akin to a Logia power, this makes the Shadow-Shadow Fruit one of the more powerful Paramecia-class Cursed Fruits. Weaknesses While this fruit can have many strengths it also has many weaknesses One of the major weaknesses of the fruit is that the user can only fully control minions whose shadows come from owners who are relatively weaker than them. Minions with shadows that come from relatively strong owners are harder to control. One example of this happening is when a Dog Penguin zombie with Sanji's shadow, Inuppe, fought against the other zombies to protect Nami. Despite this, no matter how strong the shadow is, it will soon forget its memories of its original owner and obey Moria Gecko completely. However, there are times of where a zombie could become disobediant, and can even muster at least some of it's humanity it had when it was alive, as when Cindry could not move and was unable to follow Hogback's orders after Chopper's statement about humanity. Also, the minions can still retain certain mannerisms of the shadow implanted into them even after becoming fully obediant, mostley annoying ones, such as Lola's romance, Jigoro's pervertedness, John's drinking, Inuppe's and Ryuma's constant bickering, and Oz's gullability. The minions can also be too obediant for their own good, as when Hogback was tricked into ordering Inuppe and Ryuma to jump out of the building, which they complied to without hesitation, instantly taking them out of the battle. Another weakness is that the user doesn't actually have to give the order for a shadow to be returned to the owner. If a zombie given a shadow from this fruit's power is fed salt, it will cause the shadow to return to its original owner. This is because salt is an element of the sea (salt water), which takes away Cursed Fruit powers. The amount of salt required to extract a shadow from the zombie is proportional to the said zombie's size, as Oz was immune to a salt pellet shot by Usopp, but could have been purified by a large bag of salt shot into his mouth, had it not been for Moria's own shadow. In particular, a merman, especially one who is skilled in manipulating sea water, becomes a serious threat to the user. A shadow will also return to its original owner if the corpse housing the shadow is completely destroyed, as when Jigoro was burned to nothing, Brook's shadow was restored. It is hinted at the fact that the death of the original owner has no effect on the shadow since Hogback stated that once it's extracted, it is best to get rid of the owner; however, this contradicts what Brook said, that the shadow is one half of the person's soul, and that if the person dies, the shadow also disappears, which is why Moria never kills his victims. Another notable weakness of the fruit is that the shadows that were created by the user's powers can be used against them. After a zombie minion is purified, the shadow that is freed can be caught by anyone since it is still temporarily in a tangible state until properly reunited with its original owner. They can then implant that shadow into themselves or into an ally. Additionally, the user appears to have no way of keeping track of the shadows that they extract from their victims. An example of this was when Luffy, in Nightmare mode, came out to confront Moria, the Warlord actually thought that Luffy's new form was a result of shape-shifting powers, not realizing his part that led to Luffy becoming that strong until much later. If the person is still conscious, they can then gain the abilities of the shadow's original owner and become stronger. More than one shadow also can be implanted into them thus their strength can be multiplied by the number of shadows implanted into them. However, because the shadow that is implanted into a living person is not of the same soul, the shadow will only stay in their body for ten minutes. Afterwards, the shadow will return to its original owner. Also, the number of shadows that can be implanted into a person is somewhat limited to how strong the person's spirit is. If the person's spirit is weak, they'll lose consciousness and the effects of the shadows will go down the drain. For most regular people, two or three shadows is the limit for them. Strong willed people can hold more than that, and can even transform the person into a much stronger form, depending on how many shadows they take in. Luffy, in particular, was able to hold 100 shadows in his body, transforming into the hulk known as Nightmare Luffy. The most major weakness, however, is since the user normally relies on shadows in order to be able to do anything with their powers, by depriving them access to shadows, including their own shadow, it can disable the fruit's functionality, as seen when Moria's shadow was somehow separated from him when Doflamingo came to eliminate him, leaving him helpless. Because the power heavily relies on the power of others, this can cause the user to weaken over time beacuse they rely too much their subordinates to fight, making the user lazy. This was noted when Moria claimed that he will become the King of the Pirates simply through the use of his zombie army, and when the Five Elder Stars decided that he was too weak to continue as a Warlord, and sent Donflamingo to eleminate him. Moria also has yet to demonstrate being able to utilize, in any way, shadows that had been cast by inanimate objects, hinting that his power only affects those belonging to living beings, since he was never seen being able to revive zombies using shadows that belonged to anything other than living people. Other than that, the user is also affected by the standard Cursed Fruit weaknesses. Usage The fruit's bestowed powers, as used by Moria, have been used mostly to create a large number of zombies in Thriller Bark. With it, he has been able to steal various shadows from various people who unfortunately stumble across his island. With the help of Hogback's surgical ability to create all sorts of creatures, and a large freezer filled with tons of corpses, Moria has been able to create a large army of the dead. Moria is also able to use the powers in battle in a manner suiting his personal motto. Moria is able to manifest his shadow into a dark semi-liquid like silhouette figure resembling himself. This being is seemingly impervious against conventional attacks. It is also capable of splitting itself into smaller bat-like shapes. Overall, Moria mostly uses his shadow to both attack enemies and protect himself without personally doing anything. Moria can also use the fruit's powers to switch with his own shadow. This can come in useful, either to travel long distances or to escape from enemy attacks. Since his zombie minions do not inherit Cursed Fruit abilities from the shadows animating them, Moria can also aid his zombie minions in the execution of some of their techniques by implanting his shadow into theirs. The most devastating thing Moria can do with the fruit's powers is to empower himself with the shadows he uses to animate his zombie minions, absorbing both power and skill, assimilating them into his own. A person that had a shadow infused into them would also experience similar effects (first side-effects often include an area around their eyes darkening in color), and the more shadows they absorb, the more power they amass. Of course, the number of shadows that they can take in at any given time all depends on their willpower. Apparently, if a person absorbs more than one shadow at once, the excess effect can actually cause their bodies to change in appearance. This often causes them to grow in size to epic proportions, as was in the case of Luffy in his Nightmare Form, and Moria after using Shadow's Asgard. Though unknown on how it was done, Moria also displayed the ability to literally disappear, demonstrated when he was about to be killed by Doflamingo and the Pacifistas in the aftermath of the Battle of Navyford. Even though the scene was not presented in the series, Doflamingo stated Moria had disappeared and commented that he had never thought the Shadow-Shadow Fruit would have this ability. However, this could simply be the "Kagemusha", swapping places with his shadow, seen to be detached from him throughout the course of the war, it was probably in another place so he could swap with its place and quickly call his shadow back; Doflamingo could be unaware of this ability. However, it is also a possibility that Moria's "disappearance" was due to the interference of Absalom and the Clear-Clear Fruit. Attacks The named techniques that are used by Moria are as follows: *'Doppelman' (ドッペルマン, Dopperuman): The name of the dark silhouette-like figure Moria made using his own shadow. He does this by using his Cursed Fruit powers on his own shadow, causing it to rise from whatever surface it is being cast upon by his body and into a three-dimensinal mobile state. With this "shadow clone", Moria can use it to fight in his stead. Being immortal and able to regenerate, the Doppleman is the ultimate shield against most attacks and will block almost any incoming attack, but Luffy finds out that it may be tricked by sneak attacks and so cannot defend against everything. Its name is derived from doppelgänger. He can also switch places with it at will. The name may come from "Doppelgänger", a tangible double of a living person that typically represents evil. **'Shadow Warrior' (影武者, Kagemusha): a technique in which Moria can swap places with Doppelman at any time, allowing Moria to practice a form of teleportation of sorts, making it very hard to hit him. This technique's name comes from the term used in Japanese to refer to an impersonator. This was properly shown and explained later when Robin attempted to snap his neck with four gigantic arms. *'Brick Bat' (ブリック・バット, Burikku Batto): Moria transforms his "shadow clone", Doppelman, into a myriad of balls. These balls then turn into a swarm of bats that can attack an opponent. After being used, the bats can merge back together to reform Doppelman. The name may be a pun on the word "brickbat" which designates a brick used as a weapon. This was first seen being used against Luffy. *'Black Box' (ブラック・ボックス, Burakku Bokkusu): While in his form upgraded by Shadow's Asgard, Moria turns his shadow, made even larger by his Shadow's Asgard colossal form, into several Brick Bats. He then has them transform and completely encase an opponent in a black box made out of solidified shadows. With his opponent encased in the box, Moria is then capable of smashing the opponent with either his hands or feet. This was first seen being used against Luffy in his Gear Second form. *'Shadow Revolution' (影革命, Kage Kakumei): Moria implants his shadow into a victim. With it inside, he is able to manipulate the shape of the victim's shadow. When the shadow's shape is changed, the victim's body will be changed too. Moria is able to do this because of the general rule about shadows. It is common knowledge that a shadow will always comply with the body casting it. Because of that, the shadow and the body are always the same shape. By changing the shape of the body's shadow with Moria's powers, the body is forced to match the shape of the shadow. In effect, it's the reverse of a shadow changing shape to match with the body casting it because it is the body that is now transforming to match the shape of the shadow it is casting. It's basically the reverse of shadow puppetry. **'Oz Ball' (オーズ・ボール, Ōzu Bōru): Using Shadow Revolution on Oz' shadow, Moria changes Oz into a gigantic ball to crush his opponents. This was first seen being used against Team Natsu, the Straw Hats and Brook. However, the attack's power wasn't shown because Oz asked Moria to finish the Straw Hats himself. *'Shadows Asgard' (シャドーズ・アスガルド, Shadōzu Asugarudo): A supplementary technique in which Moria empowers himself with the shadows he has deprived by devouring them. In doing so, his size and physical strength are increased in proportion to the amount of shadows he has absorbed. On Thriller Bark, he accomplished this by using his own shadow to impale and remove the shadows of his zombie minions, absorbing 1,000 shadows into himself. The large number of shadows increased his proportions to rival that of Oz, and gave him physical strength sufficient to split Thriller Bark in half with a single attack. In this form, Moria's neck bloated to extreme proportions, similar to how a gecko puffs up its throat when threatened. His horns also became longer and his hair became spike-like in manner. His arms also became very huge while his legs became longer compared to their original stubby appearance. Because of his body proportions in this form, Moria was forced to walk on all fours. The drawback to this technique is that Moria gains size at the cost of speed. When used against Luffy, he was practically unable to land a hit when Luffy was in Gear Second. In addition to losing speed, Moria has trouble controlling large amounts of shadows inside his own body, and is prone to regurgitate them in small amounts if struck hard enough. This decreases his overall power, as the shadows return to their original owners when liberated. Zolo notes that this technique is more of a desperate last resort than a trump card. In the anime, he has a green aura while absorbing the shadows and his voice is deepened and distorted. When used against Jimbei, Moria took in a much smaller amount of shadows (around a dozen at most), which merely doubled his height without much change in his proportions or appearance. This technique's name comes from Asgard, the Norse mythological city of the gods. *'Spiky Shadow Lizard' (角刀影, Tsuno-Tokage): Gathering his shadow together, Moria shoots out a large shadow spear at an opponent. The tip of this spear resembles a horned lizard. The Kanji for the move reads Horn Blade Shadow; however, pronunciation-wise, it resembles the Japanese word for Horned Lizard, thus making the name a pun. This was first seen being used against Little Oz Jr.. History Past Synopsis Trivia * The way a zombie is purified by making them eat salt to negate the Shadow-Shadow Fruit's powers, resembles a common belief in most occult practices. The belief is that one can purify an evil spirit, like a zombie, by surrounding them with, or making them eat, salt, which is believed to have holy properties. * Although Moria's victims vaporize when they lose their shadow and are exposed to sunlight, Moria is able to detach his shadow in the sun, along with many other additional properties, being the owner of the fruit. * The way Moria steals shadows from his victims by cutting them off like pieces of clothing from their feet, resembles the concept of Peter Pan's own cloth-like shadow. References External Links *Shadow - Wikipedia article about shadows. *Shadow play - Wikipedia article about shadow puppetry. *Kagemusha - Wikipedia article about a Japanese movie which gives the basic idea of the term Moriah's technique is based after. *Asgard - Wikipedia article about the mythological city Moria's technique is named after. *Peter Pan - Wikipedia article about the story with the concept of a detachable cloth-like shadow. *Doppelgänger - Wikipedia article about the source of the name of Moria's Doppelman. *Doppelgänger - Monstropedia article about the source of the name of Moria's Doppelman. Site Navigation Category:Cursed Fruits Category:Paramythia